Soft Skills for the Professional Services Industry

Introduction: Professionals in a Digital World

DIGITALIZATION AS WELL AS the pandemic are transforming our clients' businesses and the professional services industry. Disruption may mean that in the future, our clients' business models will no longer work in the future. But our own business models are also put to the test. In the future, how can we support our clients with our services? Are we paving the way and driving a successful future for our clients, or are we blocking important change processes with our consulting services? What are we doing in the professional services industry to successfully master digitalization? We need to find the right answers to these and many other questions.

Artificial intelligence, cryptocurrencies, social media, virtual and hybrid worlds, smartphones, Zoom, and MS Teams meetings have led to a complexity that is a particular challenge for every professional. To this we add the associated possibilities that we are able to call up information and communicate almost anywhere in the world while making decisions at every turn creates additional complexity. Professional private lives are often inextricably linked. Professional information can be transported almost anywhere in the world via smartphone. On the other hand, professionals receive information about their children's school grades, their life partner's problems, or other private matters at almost every location where they work. In work‐life blending, the professional world merges with private ...